San Marcos: Service to Elders Spurs Personal Growth and Volunteerism

Students in a course on the psychology of aging course spent 80 hours each providing direct patient and family care to older adults in hospice care or individuals diagnosed with dementia who are receiving specialized memory care. In the past year, 31 students completed 2,630 hours of service with some students’ final service reports, calling the course as the most valuable in their undergraduate experience or the experience in which psychology became real. More than 75% of students planned to stay at their site even after the course was finished, with some students voluntarily providing more than a year of service on their own.

For 17 years, CSU Dominguez Hills’ student-health physician Sophia Momand has worked with nursing, biology, psychology, and sociology students to give ongoing free medical care to local vulnerable homeless people.

Students in a course on the psychology of aging course spent 80 hours each providing direct patient and family care to older adults in hospice care or individuals diagnosed with dementia who are receiving specialized memory care.

A business ethics service-learning course has encouraged students to learn about local nonprofits and help to raise funds for agencies serving people in need by volunteering more than 1,000 hours each.